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Saturday, November 23, 2024
There was no shortage of urgency heading into the home stretch for NC State, and they certainly showed it in taking advantage of a big quality win opportunity. Plus the Wildcats have a bigger lead, a dramatic home win on a night with road wins in the Big East, and two league leaders go on the road and win to stay tied at the top.
The Ivy League is looking a little different than expected, with only one of the top three preseason picks among the top three at the midway point. Plus the leaders win in a couple of other mid-major leagues, the MAAC continues to be a tight race, and one MAAC coach will be sticking around a little longer.
At long last, Texas gets the kind of win they had yet to pick up under Shaka Smart, and not a moment too soon. Plus a Pirate star is out for a bit, a bounceback attempt continues, and some extra sessions were needed on the day.
Mike Daum’s terrific career at South Dakota State finished up this year. Surprisingly, it didn’t include another Summit League tournament title and NCAA Tournament appearance, as this time it was North Dakota State returning to postseason supremacy.
A special year for Boulevard rivals in Nashville is still going for Lipscomb, which in dramatic fashion clinched its first-ever trip to New York City for the NIT semifinals..
A brief look at some of Saturday’s stories, including Jim Boeheim returning to the bench, Wofford and Furman meeting in a big one that wrongly wasn’t on TV, and New Mexico State’s quiet roll.
A tense, terrific, every-possession-counts battle saw Cincinnati rally to edge UCF on Thursday. Plus, Chris Clemons & Mike Daum climb the scoring lists, San Francisco with a huge road comeback, Michigan makes it look easy & more.
Once again another highly ranked team had some trouble on the road this week, with Gonzaga only pulling away from Loyola Marymount in the final minutes. Plus: the Murray State/Austin Peay rivalry is back, and some superb individual performances in the Big Sky, CAA and Summit League.
Kansas played its first true road game of the season Saturday night at Arizona State. It shouldn’t be much of a surprise that the Jayhawks lost. Plus, Saturday’s top individual performances including a unique double-double by Old Dominion’s Aaron Carver and ETSU wins the venerable Sun Bowl Invitational:
On a night with three matchups between the conferences, the ACC had the SEC’s number, especially in Raleigh. Plus the hits keep coming for one conference out west, another west coast team looks better all the time, and a couple of coaches will be under contract a little longer.
